Cats are known to enjoy chasing and playing with small moving objects, and particularly objects that move randomly in various directions. Furthermore, cats have a known affinity for the smell of catnip, and are drawn to any object containing catnip. Therefore, an ideal cat toy would be a soft toy which would not injure a cat, which moves randomly and which exudes the smell of catnip.
Small toys with internal motor mechanisms to move the toy and power toy appendages are well known as illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 711,323 to Kingsbury and 5,320,573 to Matsayuma. Such toys are generally not suitable as cat toys, for they contain moving parts which are quickly destroyed by a cat and hard surfaces which can result in injury to a cat.